I'm not talking about 'hipster-cred', I don't think words like these have any place here.

But there's really a distinction that you seem to miss. It's great that you are looking for the greatest directors from each country that may be overshadowed by 'bigger guys/gals' from other places, as I now understand your post. But what I was trying to say is that any 5-10 directors that an experienced cinephile can name from a given country are always just the tip of the iceberg of that country's cultural legacy, and sometimes one can witness people from those places or just narrow domain experts/fans ranting against an unfair attention given by the world to those directors. Or even straight accusing them of pandering to foreign press or festivals, which is something that is absolutely not exclusive to Kurosawa.

So for example, speaking about Japan, it would be a great start to delve into works by Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Miyazaki, Kitano, Oshima, Koreeda and Imamura, but the way you phrased your question in the OP makes me expect other - more local, less world-wide famous - names: Naruse, Kinoshita, Kinugasa, Shindo, Yoshida, Masumura etc. (I don't think I've seen a single film by those guys, btw :lol:) And I personally witnessed fans ranting about the world ignoring Kinoshita in favor of Kurosawa, or ignoring some old school non-proto-New Wave (cinéma de papa) French director from 50-60s that is beloved by audiences and critics in France in favor of Godard, or ignoring Khutsiev and Ryazanov in favor of 'Western-approved' Tarkovsky and Kalatozov. Not that I agree with that sentiment, but it does exist, and I would bet every country has such 'strangers in their own land'.

And speaking about Svankmajer and Has, they are totally entry-level surrealism even for people who can't point their home countries on the map, the former one especially. Usually people learn about them or get interested in their work much earlier than in the national Czech/Polish cinema.